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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2015-06-17, Page 5Wednesday, June 17, 2015 • Huron Expositor 5 1 www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com Egmond'sRideColonel itolonel' Anthony Huron Tract. CVan Egmond Van Egmond and his turned his white sons plunged into the horse east onto the task of building major Huron Road for the last portions of the Huron time on December 2, and London Roads to 1837. Ill and alone, he allow access to the settle - travelled down the high- ment. By 1832, they had way he had built to com- completed their Hercu- mit High Treason. Huron History lean task months ahead Born on March 10, David Yates of schedule. 1775 at Groesbeek, Neth- Stunning accomplish- erlands, Van Egmond and three daughters. He ments that should have was baptized in the moved the family to earned Van Egmond the Reformed Church, with Pennsylvania in 1819. eternal gratitude of the the name Antonj Jacobi They found the hard- Canada Company. Willem Gijben. He scrabble life of frontier Instead, the Company claimed descent from farming difficult as the under Thomas Mercer the aristocratic Dutch land had to be sold to Jones, Galt's replacement, Van Egmonds but, pay back taxes in 1826. A neglected to build prom - according to biographer move to Upper Canada ised schools and W. J. Van Veen, this claim in 1828 brought him in churches to entice settle - 'was invented' as the last contact with John Galt. ment. Furthermore, the Count Van Egmond died Galt recruited Van Canada Company childless in 1707. Egmond to assist the refused to honour its Van Egmond would Canada Company in set- agreement with Van also claim the rank of fling the Huron Tract. Egmond to pay for 1/3 of Colonel and to have Exaggerated family lin- the value of his labour in been on Napoleon's eage and military claims cash. retreat from Russia and aside, what the Van Although Van wounded at the Battle of Egmond family accom- Egmond's hard work Waterloo. Stories of his plished was truly impres- made him the largest military exploits are sive. Along with the land owner in the Huron impossible to verify as Helmers, Seebachs and Tract with 13 000 acres, no documentary evi- Fryfogels, the Van without settlers to buy dence exists to support Egmonds established land, he could not con - his claims. As Van Veen inns to welcome, advise vert his assets into states, Van Egmond's and assist apprehensive wealth. His charity to new "army service, if any, settlers into the Huron settlers and inability to was of a very short Tract. There was scarcely pay his labourers in cash duration." a settler who encoun- brought him to financial What can be verified is tered Van Egmond that ruin. that he married his did not benefit from his Van Egmond wrote let - strong willed and generousity. ters denouncing the Can - resourceful wife, Marie In 1829, Susanne Van ada Company in William Susanne Dietz in Ger- Egmond earned the dis- Lyon Mackenzie's radical many in 1808. The mar- tinction of harvesting the "Colonial Advocate' riage produced five sons first sheaf of wheat in the newspaper. In 1835, as a Reform candidate, he narrowly lost the election to Captain Robert Dun- lop. A second humiliating electoral defeat in 1836 drove Van Egmond to advocate armed rebel- lion. As the Lizars sisters recalled, Colonel Van Egmond warned Huron farmers that if they wanted change "they would have to fight for it." In Toronto in late November 1837, Macken- zie, believing Van Egmond an experienced combat leader, asked him to command the rebel army poised to attack on December 10. Van Egmond readily accepted but, curiously, he promptly returned to Seaforth. Major G. H. Needler, a Van Egmond biographer, wondered that something is `weirdly strange' about a commander who knew the date of an impending attack and yet, made absolutely no attempt to ready his troops for bat- tle. Unless, of course, he lacked command experience. Courage and convic- tion were attributes that 62 year old 'Colonel' Van Egmond had in abun- dance. As he set out from Seaforth on December 2, Van Egmond must have been disheartened to know that not a single man in the Huron Tract joined the rebel cause. Loyalty, or perhaps fear, trumped any grievances against the Family Compact. When `Colonel' Van Egmond arrived at Mont- gomery's Tavem at 8:00 a.m. on December 7, panic reigned at rebel headquar- ters. Unbeknownst to Van Egmond, Mackenzie had advanced the insurrection date by three days. Instead of the 4-5000 strong rebel army promised, Van Egmond found a rabble of 400 ill -trained, badly equipped men. He also learned that Colonel James FitzGib- bon, veteran of the War of 1812, was leading a Loyalist column of 1 000 men supported by artil- lery up Yonge Street to crush the rebellion. When Van Egmond advised that the situa- tion was hopeless, Mac- kenzie threatened to shoot him. In the ensuing skir- mish, the rebel forces scattered in minutes. By 2:00 p.m., the rebellion was over. After com- manding his army for barely six hours, Van Egmond was emotionally and physically exhausted. He sought refuge at Shepherds' farm where the Queen's men seized and impris- oned him in the Toronto jail. Initially, Van Egmond protested his innocence letter to the editor Crisis in the federal government's management of Canada's rivers, lakes and drinking water To the Editor: Canada is blessed with 2.5 million lakes and rivers. At this point in time, 99 per cent of them have been stripped of federal environ- mental protection as a result of legislation passed during Mr.Harper's nine years of environmental neglect. In 2012, the Harper government hastily passed the omnibus Bill C-45. This irresponsible, non -sustaina- ble piece of legislation can- celled pending environmen- tal impact reviews on 3,000 energy projects, pro- jects which included min- ing, fracking and tar sands pipeline proposals. Not long ago, 2.5 million lakes and rivers in Canada were pro- tected by federal legisla- tion. Today, only 159 remain protected by federal legislation. In the month of January 2015 alone, there were 1,838 drinking water advisories across Canada. Such drastic neglect of a vital and precious resource is a most serious indict- ment of Mr. Harper's rule. His disdain for the environment has been noted by many, including Brad Firth, who prefers to be called Caribou Legs. Caribou Legs is one of my new heroes. Caribou Legs is an indig- enous ultra -marathon run- ner from Inuvik, who for many years has been run- ning to raise awareness of the dangers posed by mining operations in north- ern Yukon. On June 1st, Caribou Legs was given a spirited send off by a group of high school students as he departed from Vancou- ver. His destination is Ottawa. He expects to com- plete his 4,4000 km. mara- thon of hope on Parliament Hill, arriving just prior to the most important federal election in a generation. His courageous challenge is supported by Maud Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadi- ans. Interested readers can but a mortally wounded rebel identified him as their commander. Van Egmond's fate was sealed. Already suffering from consumption, Van Egmond contracted pneumonia in the squalid conditions of the Toronto jail. Van Egmond denied the Crown the satisfaction of pleading for his life in an open trial and then face the humiliation of a public execution on the gallows. On December 30, he was removed to the Toronto General Hospi- tal where he died on Jan- uary 5, 1838. Constant Van Egmond, the Colo- nel's son, refused even to allow a ceremonial mus- ket volley over the grave of the deceased rebel leader. The label 'traitor' never stigmatized the family as the Village of Egmondville and Egmondville House proudly bear the Van Egmond name. The Lizars sisters pro- nounced the most fitting tribute on the "tragedy of Anthony Van Egmond" as they assert that "the men and women of Huron may well honour the man who gave his heart, soul and purse to the county and who deserves the title 'Father of the Huron Tract." follow his progress by con- tacting the Council of Canadians at inquiries@ canadians.org. Our hopes rest with Caribou Legs' message being heard and acted upon by the next gov- ernment of Canada. Respectfully, Jim Hollingworth, MD Goderich, ON